April 14, 2016. Two dozen ex-U.S. intelligence officials from the group Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) signed onto a statement
saying there was no Assadist chemical weapons attack this month in Syrian. It’s in an article called “Trump Should Rethink Syria Escalation” on April 11.

This is the heart of their proof:

“2 – Our U.S. Army contacts in the area have told us this is not what happened. There was no Syrian “chemical weapons attack.” Instead, a Syrian aircraft bombed an al-Qaeda-in-Syria ammunition depot that turned out to be full of noxious chemicals and a strong wind blew the chemical-laden cloud over a nearby village where many consequently died.”

And that’s it. No evidence at all.

The unnamed contacts told “them” exactly what the Russians immediately said after the airstrike.

· It doesn’t’ strike them as odd that there are no Syrian or Russian photos of the so-called ruined chemical ammunition depot even though the Russians and Syrian forces have drones and satellites

· It doesn’t strike them as odd that the “rebels” only use chemicals to poison their own civilians in “false flag” operations and NEVER Assad’s forces.

· It doesn’t embarrass these intelligence officers that they call all opposition to Assad “al-Qaeda” just like Assad does.

· In 2013 this same group said that unnamed active CIA officers were telling them that the monstrous sarin attack of that August was not launched by Assad forces. Instead they were secretly told "CIA Director John Brennan is perpetrating a pre-Iraq-War-type fraud on members of Congress, the media, the public."
They never produced a shred of evidence of this plot by Brennan, not a document, not a person testifying in public. Isn't this peculiar?

Sad that these people who did courageous and valuable work exposing U.S. lies about Iraq have developed tunnel vision and now assume that the U.S. is behind every injustice and every atrocity. They understand the U.S. to a point, but they can’t comprehend that there are many other great powers in the world, almost all led by tyrannies, all ruthlessly lying and killing.

Their efforts are now discrediting the anti-war movement. People look at their claims and compare them unfavorably to the testimony of Syrians and journalists and human rights groups like HRW and Amnesty International. This makes them think the whole anti-war movement is naïve, daft or worse.